In 1982, when then-freshman Michael Jordan made the winning basket to give North Carolina the NCCA Championship over Georgetown in New Orleans, longtime Miami Lakes resident Reid Stevenson was there.
As North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano and the Wolfpack celebrated following Lorenzo Charles’ buzzer-beating dunk to win the championship against Houston, Stevenson was sitting in the stands in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When Kentucky player Jack Givens was named the most outstanding player of the tournament after his team beat Duke in 1978, Stevenson witnessed coach Joe B. Hall finally winning a championship in St. Louis.
“Those were some memorable moments I will always cherish,” said Stevenson, who’s an assistant basketball coach at Monsignor Edward Pace High School.
As part of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, which created the format for the NCAA Tournament, Stevenson will make his 36th consecutive trip to the Final Four in April at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
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Curtis Stevenson has been attending the Final Four with his dad for the past 24 years.
He said his two favorite memories were Duke winning back-to-back championships over Michigan in 1992 in Minnesota and Chris Webber’s infamous time-out call that cost the Wolverines the championship against Dean Smith’s North Carolina team a year later in New Orleans.
“It was my favorite because I was a big Duke fan growing up,” said Curtis Stevenson, a sportscaster at 560 WQAM who co-hosts the morning show with Joe Rose. “And the strange part about the Webber time-out was that no one in the building knew what was going on. Most people thought he traveled and some people thought he called time out with no time outs left. The whole building was confused. They didn’t know what really happened.”
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“People said this is the guy who made the winning shot,” Stevenson said. “I didn’t know who Michael Jordan was at the time but I was right there standing near him.”
Reid and Curtis Stevenson said attending the Final Four together is the most fun any father and son could ever have.
“This is our thing, we do this every year,” Curtis Stevenson said. “No matter where it is, we will be there. I take my vacation for these games. My mom came for a couple of years and we had family members and coaches join us.”
Said Reid Stevenson: “We have a good time.”
Reid Stevenson knows all about championships.
As the assistant coach for the Spartans, the team won five state championships, including back-to-back (2007 and 2008) under head coach Mark Lieberman, and as a high-school player at Miami High, the Stingerees won the championship two consecutive years under Vince Shaffer.
Reid Stevenson coached his son at Pace when the Spartans won the state championship in 1996 under head coach Joe Dawson.
“It was fun,” Reid Stevenson said.
“And you have fun winning,” Curtis Stevenson added.